David Michelinie - Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

His most famous works include two runs on the Iron Man series, with co-writer (and inker) Bob Layton, in the late 1970s and early 1980s which introduced the character's serious problem with alcoholism, his specialized power armor variants and his new enmities with Justin Hammer and Doctor Doom. He introduced one of Stark's closest comrades, the fearless pilot, Jim Rhodes. His most noted cliffhanger was when Tony Stark was thrown out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier and had to don his armor completely to use its flight function before he hit the ground. After leaving the title in 1981, Michelenie reunited with Layton on the book late in 1986, and along with penciller M. D. Bright, closed out preceding writer Dennis O'Neil's Advanced Idea Mechanics arc and launched the Armor Wars. Michelenie left Iron Man again after issue 250, closing his second collaboration with Layton with a sequel to their Iron Man-Doctor Doom time travel episode from issues 149-150.

From 1987 to 1994, Michelinie wrote the Amazing Spider-Man series which featured the art of Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, and Mark Bagley, while introducing the supervillains Venom and Carnage. Michelinie had planned to introduce Venom earlier and included a "teaser" scene in Web of Spider-Man #18, in which Peter Parker is pushed by an offscreen Venom into the path of an oncoming train, the symbiote being immune to Spider-Man's "spider sense" that would have normally warned him of the attack. This was the first of what was to be several clues leading to the reveal of Venom. Michelinie left Web of Spider-Man shortly after and was not able to continue the introduction of Venom until his time of writing The Amazing Spider-Man.